Thieves netted more than HK$450,000 worth of cash and valuables from three properties late on Monday night and early yesterday when Hongkongers were welcoming the new year.

A 52-year-old woman whose name was given only as Yeung called police around 10pm on Monday to report that her flat in Wong Tai Sin had been broken into.

"The lock to the wooden door was prised open and there were signs that [the flat] was looted," police said yesterday.

Missing were HK$2,500 in cash and HK$205,000 worth of jewellery and watches, police said.

Minutes into the new year, an elderly couple discovered that their flat in Kwun Tong's Hong Pak Court had been broken into. The couple, whom police wanted identified only as Mr Tam, 70, and Madam Yiu, 65, lost cash and jewellery worth about HK$110,000.

No one has been arrested yet in the two cases.

In the third break-in, a couple living in Tseung Kwan O's Ma Yau Tong village reported the loss of about HK$134,000 in cash and valuables, including a HK$80,000 ring, a HK$25,000 watch and two computers.

The victims were a 49-year-old man and his 43-year-old wife, identified only as Mr Tang and Madam Law.

Around 3am in Lan Kwai Fong, police arrested a 32-year-old Colombian man who was found with most of the valuables missing from the Ma Yau Tong property.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Burglars cash in while Hong Kong celebrated